How's the story coming?

May 14 . . . though it looks like we're the only one with our submission in. Here you go:

Warm. Nice. Soft wet from the sky. Trees – drip drip drip. Nest. Food.

. . . Home.

Vihaan took one last drag from his cigarette as the car pulled to a stop, sliding slightly as the muddy tires skidded on the wet floor. As he stepped out, waterproof boot squishing against the mossy ground, the rainfall immediately extinguished the small flame, making him grumble as he pulled on a leathery pair of gloves stored in the back of the truck. Next to him, Ayaan was grabbing a small cage, swinging it brightly as he walked into the brush.

"It'll escape anyway. What's the point?" Vihaan grumbled, dragging his feet through the rainforest. Soil turned over the toe of his already blackened boots, making them uncomfortably wet and squishy.

"It won't escape. We're too good at this for that," Ayaan consoled him, traipsing through the mud. A wide smile spread across his face, crinkling dark eyes covered with locks of hair. As if that were true! Weeks had gone by without them finding a single exotic animal, and the two were almost broke, desperate for anything they could find in the rainforest. Ayaan was always such an optimist, and yet it was he who complained the most about their line of work – and not just because of the lousy pay.

Vihaan rolled his eyes – and caught sight of a flash of blue. He twirled, cursing the squelch his boots made, and snuck up on the bird ahead. A peacock, incredibly focused on the ants it was downing one after the other. In a carefully practiced movement, Vihaan shot his hands out towards the bird, who didn't even have time to squalk before it was stuffed inside the cage.

Hands – hands! Filthy hands, dirty hands, oily hands – grasping, mussing, soiling. Off! Off!

Ayaan sighed, holding it up and looking into the peacock's beady eyes. "Let's just bring it to the Himalayas and get it over with."

The trip was long and tiresome, especially with such a measly load to transport, but at that point the two were desperate for anything they could bring. Ayaan even vomited over the side of the boat as they sailed from the Lashadweep Islands back to the mainland of Karnataka, and he had the stomach of a sailor. From there it was another long journey to the Himalayas, where the peacock would be set free.

Cramped – cold. Swaying. No room to move. Feathers – feathers ruined, feathers awful.

Like all the others, the bird was completely unnerved by the snow, and tried to fly away from it before realizing that it fell from the sky as well as blanketed the ground. Vihaan and Ayaan watched the peacock's progress for a while, but they'd seen the same thing so may times that it was simply boring, so they soon turned away and left. As hired help, they were none to complain about their line of work, but a colony of exotic animals in the Himalayas was one of the strangest things they'd ever heard of.

Wet – wet! Cold! Bad, bad, wrong wet – not right, not natural! No. No. Run. Run! 

The sky – from the sky. Sky and ground – no escape, no escape. Everywhere. Anywhere.

Is that . . . ?
Blue! More blue!

Hello! Hello!

If the two had turned, they would have seen a happy peacock, fluttering towards a sight it may or may not have seen.

@St., Katydid's art is beatiful!

@Everyone else, I'm moving the deadline to the 20th, because I think we need a bit more time….

In English class, we looked a lot at symbolism and motifs. I think they're so cool! I included a lot in this story, and I had so fun writing it.

What do you think the message I'm conveying is? And what do you think everything represents? You may have to read this a few times!

~~~ 

Where the trees sang and the flowers flew, a unicorn awoke.

She was small, with not much of a mane. She was also beautiful, and what hair she did have shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow. At the end of her horn glowed a spark, fiery but small. It was so bright, it lit up the entire forest!

She took a few steps. They were small at first, but she quickly became alert, galloping and running around. The young animal obviously didn’t know the forest around her, but she soon got accustomed to it.

Light emanated from her body, not just her horn. Whatever she looked at would start to glow, then change. She stared at a rock, and it morphed into a ball, then a block, then a sculpture. She looked at a feather. It started gleaming as it turned into a pair of wings, and then flew away, over the treetops, into the sky far above.

The unicorn came across a pool, and bent her head her head to take a drink. In the pond showed not her reflection, but a vision of something else. She saw a toddler, an infant, a five-year-old. In their faces, she could see beauty and wonder, not unlike her own. She saw the children drawing, playing pretend, building blocks. Their creations were new and wonderful, and the delight in their eyes showed it. The world, for them, held only possibility. As she stared at the water, it started to glow like everything else, her horn as bright as ever.

She went on. Eventually, she came to a clearing, where she could see the sky well. A cloud was in it, but not only that. Another vision appeared, one of a child, only older. He seemed around nine or ten, and he was sitting in a classroom, a slightly bored look on his face. The unicorn watched as the vision changed to the same child sitting at home. “You have to get good grades,” his parents were saying. He sighed and went back to his homework.

The light in her horn dimmed as she turned away. Continuing her exploration of the magical forest, she saw a strange butterfly. It wings were so shiny, she could see a reflection. It held still while she approached it. In the mirror of these wings, she observed yet another human kid. This one was about thirteen, and he was in school, like the other one. Unlike the children she saw in the pool, this one asked no questions, made no connections while he was learning. He only learned what he was told to: But it wasn’t learning. It was dull memorization. The school curriculum held no interest for him; They only covered what they had to, according to the state. He spent time insipidly preparing for a standardized test, but only what was on the test, not expanding, not thinking, not being creative.

The light in her horn dimmed more, and what once could light up a forest was now barely visible. She had seemed happy before, but now you could see sadness in her eyes. She continued on, and when she reached another sunlit clearing, she saw a shadow. It was of an additional human, nearly grown up. She was crying, stress all over her face, all over her body. She was sickly, was acne on her forehead, and a weak, pale body. If you looked at her brain, you’d see the damage there and be astonished. “I have so much homework,” she was saying. “But what if I don’t pass my AP test? I’ll be a failure!”

The light from the unicorn died completely. Although the sun was high in the sky, the unicorn lay down to sleep.

Her eyes closed.

Ahh, I don't think I can make it for this round!! I'm super, super sorry to everyone!! 

Is Claaws still here?

I don't remember seeing any new comments from Claaws in the last few weeks. However, we can't tell if Claaws may be reading comments, just not posting.

Admin

OMG I'm soooo so sorry Mei! I totally forgot! But I'm here now….is it too late? I promos I can have it done in a day or two. 

Oh I just read your story Mei. OMG that's the story of my life ligit. The girl in the last one is going to be future me….taking that stupid AP class and trying to pass a class way too high up for me. I mean I keep telling my stupid parents that I'm not ready, I'm a slow learner AND dislexic. And if they can't accept the fact that theirs something wrong with their perfect little girl…..that she's not what they want her to be….that she's nothing like her a student brother who looks exactly like my dad and plays soccer like my dad and acts like my dad and the one who's gonna become a billionaire….it's taring me up inside. I mean, I already had to convince them to get me out of really advanced math, more advanced than the one I'm currently failing through their eyes, and I had to give up half my freedom cause of it. Now they won't even accept that I'm not good enough for AP, and told me that if I even get close to failing it, they'll take away everything that I could possibly ever care about. Including my one passion, dance. It's just not fair. They can't make me into something I'm not. They can't mold a hardened statue. They want me to be perfect, to be smart, to be the one thing I can't or don't want to be. They say I'm just "holding back" or as they put it recently "sitting down" and that I'm just too lazy to do anything with my life. But that's not true! I'm about the crack under the pressure. Like run away or something. There's just not really anywhere to run to….they've isolated me from all of my closest friends claiming their "bad influences" just because they don't get straight A's. I need help. What do I do? How can I stop this? 

Oh wow, I really just made that all about me. I guess I just needed someone to open up to. Someone who'd understand. Anyway, I promise I'll get to that drawing asap!